A lawyer representing children detained at South Australia’s only juvenile justice centre claims she was not informed for almost two months when an Aboriginal teenager attempted to take her own life in custody.
The Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM) lawyer who represents the girl in her early teens said the seriousness of the incident in early 2023 at Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre was not conveyed until eight weeks later.
“It was quite distressing,” said the lawyer who requested anonymity because she was not authorised to speak publicly.
The lawyer said she was initially told the girl was taken to hospital as a precaution and to be checked. “Nobody had told me she effectively tried to [kill herself] and they had to find her and rush her to the hospital.”
A briefing prepared by the teenager’s lawyer for ALRM’s criminal practice director, Amanda Lambden, states the girl was recommended for bail after her arrest but due to mental health concerns – including possible undiagnosed disabilities – was remanded for assessment.
The teenager, an alleged victim of sexual abuse, had been charged with several “very minor” summary offences but was later found to be legally incapable due to her mental health issues.
It is understood staff at the centre were closely monitoring the teenager when she attempted to take her own life because she was considered high-risk. They intervened and she was taken to hospital.
Her lawyer said the incident was “downplayed” and its full extent was only revealed when she saw court-ordered independent psychiatric reports.
The lawyer, in her briefing seen by Guardian Australia, claims it took a number of days to be told her client was hospitalised and it was not until two months later – following repeated inquiries and mental health assessment reports – that she was “given more details which described a suicide attempt”.
“When a kid is in custody, that’s a very, very significant period of time, especially when you’re in the dark, and it’s highly relevant to their legal case. It’s appalling.”
The South Australian children’s guardian, Shona Reid, told Guardian Australia on Friday that children were becoming so distressed due to prolonged detention at Kurlana Tapa they were harming themselves.
Reid said the system was in “crisis” partly due to staffing shortages.
The teenager’s lawyer said: “We don’t know if any other youths have attempted suicide and we’ve not been told about it because there hasn’t been a 269 report [regarding mental capacity] ordered. If that report had never been ordered, I likely would never have found out about this.”
The lawyer acknowledged her client was able to get support, including medical and psychological treatment, at the centre. But she said the teenager deteriorated in some ways: “I’ve never heard any reports of certain self-harming behaviours in the community compared to what she was doing in custody.”
The state Department of Human Services – which operates the detention centre – said the “safety and wellbeing of children and young people at Kurlana Tapa is the highest priority for DHS”.
“Young people in Kurlana Tapa have the right to be afforded confidentiality regarding sensitive information such as an attempted self-harm incident,” a spokesperson said. “This does not reach the information sharing guidelines threshold to allow for the sharing of such information across agencies.”
Lambden said ALRM was concerned “Kurlana Tapa appears to not be fully disclosing these incidents because that would indicate the whole nature of how we are keeping vulnerable children in custody”. “We are breaching their human rights,” the senior lawyer said.
She has also argued staffing issues are affecting the ability of lawyers to see clients.
The department said staffing shortages were being addressed “with recruitment recently outpacing attrition”.
“But this is not the sole reason of young people not having access to their lawyers on occasion,” the spokesperson said. “We have frequent occurrences where lawyers cancel on young people in our care.”
The SA human services minister, Nat Cook, said she could not comment in detail on individual cases.
The minister added: “The assertion by ALRM about the nature of the incident does not align with the department’s records. I note incidents of attempted self-harm can result in a young person’s transmission to hospital to ensure appropriate care is provided.”
• In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
